Monday, April 25, 2011

If you are not interested in Communion, the Lord's Supper, you are probably not going to be interested in this post.

Recently, I told my sermon advisory group, I would be preaching a sermon on “Why The Lord's Supper” in a couple of months. I asked if they had any suggestions.

One said to me, “Would it be possible to offer the people more than one little piece of cracker and one little cup full of grape juice? It always sounded strange to me to hear people talk about a supper, when what we experience is not even a good snack.

Someone else, one who has been a Christian for a long time, said, “I agree. It just seems like what we do has very little in common with how they partook of the Lord's Supper and experienced communion in the New Testament.”

I found our dialogue fascinating; it really gave me food for thought. (Wink. Wink.)

Since then, I have thought much about that conversation. I agree that what we do finds little connection with the way they did it in the New Testament. There is no implication from Scripture, and no implication from early church history, churches passed around portions of unleavened bread, from which each Christian took a tiny morsel.

Now, since some churches passed around one cup, I can see each individual’s swallow being smaller, similar to the size of our little communion cups. However, these were experienced in the context of a complete meal. So people, by God's design, left feeling satisfied. (Indeed, one of the reasons there was a problem in I Corinthians 11 was because the more affluent Christians were sinning by not sharing their bountiful blessings of food with the poor Christians. Consequently, the poor left hungry.)

Where did this disconnect between our experience of communion today and the early church's experiences come from? I suspect Constantine's influence on the church is partially to blame. That's the subject of another post for another day.

Within my own fellowship, I'm wondering if there is another reason as well. In my fellowship, we practice open communion. That means, anyone who desires to partake of the bread and the cup may do so. We leave it up to each individual's conscience. Each individual is subject to God's judgment (I Corinthians 11:17ff), but each is allowed to make his or her own choice.

Now, in a conservative and doctrinally careful Fellowship, you've got a problem. How do you share communion with someone who may not be a Christian? Especially, if it is someone you really believe is not a Christian? The solution is simple; you virtually eliminate the communion aspect of the service, and emphasize the Lord's Supper facet.

In the Lord's Supper, it is every man for himself. You're not showing a desire to fellowship someone, who is outside of Christ. That's his problem. Consequently, your conscience can remain untroubled.

Unfortunately, in our congregation's case, all too often we do not experience communion; rather, what is happening is 500 people are individually, and simultaneously, taking the Lord's Supper.

This explains how we can say with a straight face on Sunday nights, “If you were unable to partake of the Lord's Supper this morning, it has been left prepared for you and you may leave the auditorium to partake during the singing of our next song.”

Voila! A handful of people go to a back room, away from the rest of the Body. Or, everybody in the auditorium sits and watches three people, who are taking the Lord's Supper on a Sunday night.

Whatever that is, it clearly violates the meaning of the word–communion. Not much is being held in common by the assembly.

What's the solution? I have some ideas. But I would enjoy first hearing from you. What do you think?

Five Things I Think I Think (with a nod to Peter King for this idea)

1. When I left for Argentina in 1989, I assumed I would spend the next five years practically isolated from American news and sports. I will never forget our first night in Argentina, in the home of the Reece Mitchell family, in Buenos Aires. I mentioned to one of Reece’s sons, I cannot remember which one, that I expected to be cut off from American culture, as I had been in Papua New Guinea.

He replied, “Oh, well we get cable here.”

That was the first I heard of the Argentine cable service. God bless the individual, who brought cable to Argentina.

Because of the cable service, we received a direct feed of CNN. (Later, we received ESPN as well.)

After we settled in our house in Cordoba, I subscribed to the local cable service. Now, we had been in Cordoba for a little more than a month, so I already felt a little bit out of the loop. One night, about 10:30 our time, I turned on the TV to CNN.

It was 7:30 PM in Atlanta—time for CNN SPORTS TONIGHT. The program’s anthem blared out, and I emotionally tasted a little bit of home.

Virtually every night thereafter, I watched the news on CNN and SPORTS TONIGHT. Anchors Fred Hickman and Nick Charles grew to be my friends, even though I never met them.

Nick Charles is dying. He is suffering from bladder cancer and will be taken from us soon. Patrick Leech sent me a link that offers a marvelous testimony to Charles’ faith:

I feel sadness because of the connection of my past. Yet, I can say gratefully, that Nick Charles is dying well.

2. I got to experience LEADERSHIP TRAINING FOR CHRIST for the first time on a Sunday morning. I know of no better ministry for equipping young people, children, and adults (!) than LTC. What a blessing it is.

3. The Mavericks blowing a 23-point lead to Portland on Saturday doesn’t scare me. Of course, I may be whistling in the cemetery.

4. My heart goes out to the people, who have lost property, especially homes, to the wild fires. Yet, another reminder of how little humanity really controls.

5. I took my family to the site of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination yesterday afternoon. The Texas School Book Depository has been turned into a museum. We did not go inside, but we walked around the site of the murder. Sad.

I was impressed by how many people were there—more than I saw at Ford’s Theater last year. I heard the German language spoken; it looked like others from different countries were present as well.

One strange moment: at the grassy knoll the investigator and author, Robert Groden, was present with his books and DVDs on the Kennedy assassination.

He believes Kennedy was a victim of a conspiracy. Part of his proof is photos taken from Kennedy’s autopsy. (How he got them, I don’t know.)

The reason I know he had photos is, Groden had a point man, who held up some of the photos. Fortunately, he told Timothy and Annie to turn around before he did.

I have to admit; I have mixed feelings about that. On the one hand, the photos were morbid. (I decided to turn away; I couldn’t escape the sensation I was violating something sacred.) On the other hand, we are a democracy. We must hold the government accountable. Clearly, if someone in the government was conspiring to hide evidence, it would take the people seeing the evidence to move an investigation along. And, if you run for president, there are certain rights to privacy you surrender for the sake of the democracy.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Years ago, our church ministered to a girl, who had a form of palsy. She walked in an uneasy gait—very unsteady. She moved to our town, when she was probably nine or ten.

Her father was long gone (I think he was in prison.) She lived with her mother. She needed help from her mother to perform the tasks we consider routine—bathe, use the toilet, dress….

In time, we could not help but notice this girl had terrible body odor. Little by little, the reality of this girl’s life took a tragic turn.

Her mother had been neglecting her. Sometimes, she would not help her use the toilet. Sometimes, she would leave her in the bathtub. Sometimes, she would not help her bathe.

The reasons varied. There were times the mother felt overwhelmed. Escape ranged from a TV program to entertaining male friends.

In time, I, and others, became aware of the situation and called Child Protective Services to intervene.

I think back often to that young girl’s situation. Had she been in a jail, the authorities would have been arrested for their treatment. In some ways, this girl’s circumstances were like that of an inhumane jail. The girl’s jailor just happened to be her mother.

I believe in the eternal existence of a realm called hell. I believe that Satan exists and that he has many who join him in bringing as much hell as he can to this earth. The girl I just told you about experienced a little bit of Satan’s hell.

But to most of us, those experiences I just described were clearly hellish.

I used to think the world cheapened the word “hell” through over use. Now, I think I have gone to the other extreme. Satan is all about bringing hell to this earth; he wants people to experience as much of it as he can.

I have thought a lot about what I would do, if I were a soldier of Satan. I really think these guys who are part of the Church of Satan, have it wrong. They are too heavy-handed. I remember hearing about what a missionary said to Satan worshipers, when he had a conversation with them, “Do you guys think you’re the only ones going to hell?

If I were a worshiper of Satan, I think I would I would attempt to be subtler. You can win more people this way. More importantly, you can win more people in the churches. There they could spread the opposite of salt and light—darkness and “do-do” (see Luke 14:35.)

If I were an advocate of Satan, here's how I would help people, especially Christians, experience a little bit of hell on earth:

(1) Self-righteousness. Nothing distorts your life more than being self-righteous. It puts things out of whack. It helps you elevate your strengths and ignore your weaknesses. It energizes you to find the weaknesses of other people and focus on them. It is an excellent way to empower yourself on this earth. And, you can push people toward being just a little bit more damned.

2) Gossip. Another great way of bringing a little bit of hell to this earth. You can distort the truth and make people believe things that can quickly morph into outright lies. Moreover, on a technicality, you can add telling the truth to the gossip column, if you tell it to an inappropriate audience—such as breaking a confidence. A prayer circle asking for prayer requests is a great forum for this. “Pray for Marge, she and her husband are thinking about getting a divorce…”

Gossip is an excellent way to hurt people, without going to prison for it. Just one more way you can bring a little bit of hell to this earth.

3) Greed. Greed is a fantastic way to bring a little bit of hell on earth. It can motivate you to pursue money or things at the expense of other people who are hurting. If you are good at deluding yourself, you can even convince yourself that the pursuit of the material is nothing more than God choosing you for incredible blessing. Meanwhile, those without continue live lives of disease, ruin, or even starvation.

If you are serious about following Jesus, none of that is good, though, is it?

What Jesus calls us to do over and over again, is to collaborate with him in bringing God's reign here to earth. For the past one hundred years, writers ranging from C. S. Lewis to N. T. Wright, from Philip Yancey to Rob Bell, have been reminding Christians: eternity doesn’t simply start at death. The New Testament affirms over and over again that eternity begins today.

When Christians walk with Jesus, Christians invited Jesus to reign. When Jesus reigns, he is doing what God does in heaven. Any place on earth, where God is reigning, is a little bit of heaven on earth.

I believe all I have written is summarized in one tiny verse—John 10:10, “A thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, but I came to give life—life in all its fullness.”NCV

Eternity, whether it is oriented toward hell or heaven, starts now.

Those of us in Christ, invite a little bit of heaven here. We allow-we encourage-God's will to be done here, like it is in heaven.

We bring God’s rescue here on Earth. Christian workers serving children for CPS or serving the elderly in nursing homes can both rescue human beings from hellish situations and transport them to caring, dignified, and nourishing environments.

God’s people can bring a little of heaven’s beauty here to earth. Every painting offered to the glory of God, every book written to honor God, every house painted to honor God, every tool manufactured to honor God, every act done to serve people, every move made to bring peace, joy, love, gentleness, forgiveness, healing, to a broken world, is bringing a little bit of heaven to earth. This is the greatest call. It is compassionate service to those, who are hurting; it is food offered to a person who is hungry; it is parental care for orphan; these are some of the things a hellish world needs. When God begins through us, it holds the potential of lasting forever.

This cause is noble. Why wait to experience heaven after death? Why ask people to delay experiencing heaven until the afterlife? I wonder, who wouldn’t want to join us in offering-and experiencing-a little bit of heaven today?

Five Things I Think I Think (with a nod to Peter King for this idea)

1. I finished the book, OUTLIERS, by Malcolm Gladwell, last week. It started out well. I was especially fascinated by the references to the 10,000-hour rule—talented people spend a minimum of 10,000 hours perfecting their craft. (For example, the Beatles played for 10,000 hours before they made it big.)I was, however, disappointed in the conclusion of the book. The details were too mundane for my tastes.

2. If you are a fan of the NFL, you owe a debt to NFL Films. If you are not a fan of the NFL, your life has still been impacted by NFL Films. Steve Sabol, to me, the heart and soul of NFL Films, is battling a brain tumor—recently diagnosed. I pray for Steve Sabol.

3. A factoid that may only matter to me: I always try to have someone read my blogs before I post them. I find this reduces errors. Two weeks ago, I posted a weekly blog that was one of my most read. (It was the one reviewing Rob Bell’s new book—LOVE WINS.) Unfortunately, I discovered last week that somehow, the one I posted was not the edited version. If you noticed—sorry. I’ll edit it and post an updated version.

4. LEADERSHIP TRAINING FOR CHRIST is this weekend. This year will be the first year I’ll be able to stay over on Sunday. I’m looking forward to that.

Monday, April 11, 2011

I mentioned last week, I am doing a sermon series answering some of the questions I receive. This one definitely fits contemporary cultural conversations—why is there a hell? (Of course, for some in our culture, I’m sure the question is, “Is there a hell?”)

I’m sure there are a lot of reasons. To be concise, let me summarize my answer in three:

1. God wants the devil and his angels to have an eternal dwelling place away from Himself and anyone associated with Him.Jesus, in Mt. 25:41, makes reference to this reality.

2. Justice must be served.

Everyone yearns for justice; everyone wants Hitler, or the mass murderer, to face justice. Of course, our desire for justice ends when we are found guilty. That’s why a lot of us redefine our standing before God. We compare ourselves to other people, who we think are worse than us. What this leads to is a distorted view of God’s holiness, and our own. The result is, we feel comfortable consigning Osama Bin Laden to hell, but not many more people.

The Bible is not a partner to this way of thinking. The God of Scripture does not think highly of our holiness. Our sin must be addressed.

I don’t like saying this. It is not popular saying this. I hope I’m wrong saying this. Unless justice is served in this lifetime, there is a realm in eternity that will administrate justice in the life to come. The Bible calls this hell.

3. The high value God holds for freedom.

Some have written that perhaps Jesus’ greatest miracle was offering humanity freedom—the freedom to choose or reject Him.

Love cannot be purchased nor demanded. Only love freely given inspires great works. As Philip Yancey wrote in his book, THE JESUS I NEVER KNEW, the communists found this out in the old Soviet Union. You cannot mandate society’s behavior from the top down.

The predominate attitude in scripture is of people rejecting God’s desire for relationship, in order to seek their own way. God, at last, gives them up.

Here, let me channel something Tom Nelson preached in a sermon I heard years ago. These are his ideas (and, in some cases, I’m sure, his words). They have helped me, and I’m simply passing them on:

A lot of people complain about hell and call God bad names; they say that God is mean. You know why there is hell?

Let’s go back to the Garden of Eden, you have: a king, subjects, and willing obedience by those subjects. The subjects rebel, and they lose the Kingdom of God.

God spares Man, but Man continues to rebel. His conduct reaches the point that God destroys the world except for one man and his family—Noah.

After the flood, God says, “You are going to have a new kingdom. You are going to live under my rule.” What happened? The tower of Babel and Man’s failure.

So, God says, “Let’s try again.” So God takes Abraham out of Mesopotamia and says, “Through you and your descendents, I am going to bless the world....”

Then God rescues these descendents through a leader, Moses. He then gives these descendents land and Law. Now you have: a king and willing subjects—Israel.

But Israel rebels and rejects God as King.

So God gives Israel men to serve as kings.

What happened? Israel rebelled. So God sent them the Assyrians to discipline them.

Israel rebelled. So God sent them the Babylonians to discipline them.

They rebelled. So God sent the Persians. He sent the Greeks. He sent the Romans

So God took that Kingdom from the Jews and gave it to a bunch of Gentiles: Middle-Easterners, Romans, Greeks, Celts, French, Spaniards, Dutch, Anglos, Latinos, Africans, Chinese...

But what has happened? Most people have rejected him.

Someday, Jesus will come again. And when he does, he’s going to say, “I have done all I can do. I’m going to raise all of the dead, those who accepted me and those who have not. And I’m going to present all of them along with the living-those who have accepted me, and those who have not-to my Father.”

And God is going to take the wicked and say, “I’ve done everything I can do. I gave you the creation, your conscience, the law, Israel, the prophets, my Son, the proclamation of the church, my written word. And you wouldn’t take it.”

He’s going to start with Cain, and He’s going to go to the last rebellious person that is alive at the second coming. And he’s going to say, “There’s only one thing I can do with you. You go to hell, because I can do no more.

“I’m going to put you in a place where I will never bother you again. You will never again be bothered by light or beauty or anything that calls your attention to me.

“And through eternal judgment, I’m going to call attention to the sensation of what you have lived for all of your life—and that is you. And you will have nothing but the sensation of yourself forever.

“Because that is your God and that is what I will give you. I will give you what you want: your freedom.”

God gives hell as a monument to the freedom of man.

These sentiments echo something that C. S. Lewis wrote in THE GREAT DIVORCE, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Your will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Your will be done.’ All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock, it will be opened.”

I hope you will reflect over these thoughts this week. Next week, I want to come back with another thought, one I think will be more hopeful:

Eternity starts now.

Five Things I Think I Think (with a nod to Peter King for this idea)

1. Yeah Texas A & M! I always want Texas teams to win national games. I’m thrilled for the lady Aggies. And what about Gary Blair? This guy can coach.

2. The Texas Rangers are 9-1. I think if they win ninety percent of their games, they have a good chance of winning their division.

3. It’s income tax season and that is my yearly sign that I must be getting old and cranky. The older I get, the more I think the flat tax is a good idea.

With several thousand pages of tax codes, even accountants cannot keep up with all of the laws; much less agree on how to interpret them. Even those within the IRS disagree with one another on some interpretations.

Incidentally, I write as a preacher. I am blessed by the tax treatment I receive. I will continue to welcome these blessings as long as the law encourages this. However, there has got to be a better, simpler way.

4. Remember, when I say it, it is Christian principle. When you say it, it is politics. :)

Monday, April 4, 2011

(I had to edit this post--again! I could not live with myself without doing so.

Sorry: April 20, 2011)

I tell you—I want to believe it. I think millions of Christians DO believe it.

“It” is what Rob Bell has written in his latest book, LOVE WINS. If you watch news shows like GOOD MORNING AMERICA or watch news channels such as MSNBC, you may have seen Bell interviewed the past month.

Rob Bell, in case you don’t know, is a very popular preacher out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is the creator of the NOOMA videos, which are extremely popular in mainstream Christianity. Bell has also written some bestseller books. SEX GOD is one of the best treatments of the subject of sexuality I have ever read.

If Rob Bell had stopped after the first 93 pages of LOVE Wins, I have a feeling there would be no fuss. Most of those pages are things he has already said, and he makes some very good points. For example: the way Christians, and I am using the term loosely, often come across so negatively to nonbelievers, is lamentable. Research continues to bear this out.

In chapters two and three, Bell does an excellent job of channeling great thinkers such as C. S. Lewis and N. T. Wright, in explaining how heaven and hell don’t begin in the life to come—they begin today.

My one negative critique of chapter three is, Bell invested an enormous amount of stock in the story of Lazarus and the rich man, seeing it as an indicator of what life will be like in the age to come. I, personally, believe that parable is more of an explanation of Jesus’ attitude toward the poor. To be fair, many others join Bell in using the parable in this way.

Bell accurately points out how little the word “hell” is used in Scripture. This can be misleading. The concept of judgment is found throughout the Bible, culminating in the book of Revelation. I join the majority of Christendom as seeing these references as signs pointing to an ultimate eternal separation from God for many.

In Bell’s weakest moments, he pulls a number of judgment passages out of context, seemingly having them argue that God will offer mercy, redemption, and restoration to those recipients of judgment in scripture. He seizes upon the parts of Scripture that are ambiguous about the afterlife and combines them into a view that God will save everyone, or almost everyone, ultimately. To put it succinctly, God's love will change, virtually, everyone on the other side of death into a follower of Jesus.

I need to be careful here. I follow where Bell is going with some of the Old Testament examples. I get his point that God’s earthly judgment, for example, with the Israelites, does mean they will be banished to hell forever. Nevertheless, I see it as going beyond the scope of biblical revelation to say this is the prototype for how God will relate to every human in the after life.

Again I say, if God so chooses—great! Who am I to judge? (I’m sorry… that last sentence made me crack up. J) However, this does not seem to square with the way God seeks to portray himself in scripture. It is almost like Bell is saying—I know this is what the Bible says about the character of God, but I want you to know, he does not mean it.

I've got to admit; it sounds awfully good. But here is the problem: the overwhelming essence of Scripture attests to a coming judgment, where some will be saved and many will be lost. The character of God revealed in Scripture seems to support this understanding as well.

Herein lies part of the problem with Bell in this book. Bell, like many of this age, has focused on love of God—to the extreme. God's holiness, God's justice, and God's anger take second place. He is more balance in this book than I thought he would be, but this is faint praise. I found something that Tim Archer, of HERALD OF TRUTH, wrote last week, which applies well here, “More often than not, we choose not to believe in God or some aspect of God’s nature because of our own wishes and desires, the way we wish things were.”

I saw LOVE WINS coming a few years ago, when I saw Bell’s video THE GOD’S AREN’T ANGRY. That video was another masterful work, but it also put God in a box. It connected the concept of God's wrath to the needs of ancient peoples, who visualized their deities as angry, wrathful, and demanding of appeasement.

Bell converted the wrath of God into a metaphor designed to address the fears and beliefs of ancient peoples. It was almost as if he was saying, “We’re past that now. Civilization has grown up.” Again, his is not the only voice that says this. Many in Christianity feel the same way. Bell has simply articulated these views to a new generation, in a powerful and engaging way.

Frankly, it’s not fun to disagree with Bell. To do so, sometimes, comes across as the equivalent of stereotypical old man, sitting in a lawn chair wearing shorts, dark socks, and dress shoes shouting, “You kids get off my lawn!”

I read LOVE WINS with the impression, he was seeking to find a way to package the Gospel, to make it more palatable for unchurched people. This I can understand, because so many unchurched people hate Christians. Consequently, I see Bell's message here “selling” well.

Not everyone in the secular world seems to be buying it though. Journalist Martin Bashir zeroed in on Bell in a recent interview on MSNBC:

I saw the interview, before I read the book, and thought Bashir was sharp and perceptive. After reading the book, I found Bashir’s “questioning” to be unfair and inaccurate. Frankly, I wondered if he had read the book, or if he was instead relying on reading summaries provided by his staff.

Bell very much comes across as supporting the idea, Jesus is the only way. In LOVE WINS, it is Christ's work and love, which ultimately point to salvation. Any Hindu, Muslim, Jew, unchurched person, or anyone else, will find salvation only through Jesus. What Bell does is offer them the hope of finding salvation after death.

At some point, Bell believes, even the hardest of hard-hearted sinners will turn to God—because of God's relentless love. To put it in a sound bite, Bell is saying you can surrender to Jesus now—or surrender to him later, but you WILL ultimately surrender to him.

The idea conveyed is, in the afterlife, lots and lots of people are going to be enjoying life with God. Those who continue to reject Jesus, will be on the outside looking in—a self-imposed exile. Sooner or later, they are going to give it up and join the party.

At the end of the book, Bell writes, if the reader wants more on hell, to consult C. S. Lewis’ THE GREAT DIVORCE. Having been a few years since I read that book, I did consult it.

I found a number of passages I had underlined in Lewis’ book. The more I skimmed it, the more I realized Bell’s view of hell in the eternity sounded similar to Lewis’ view. Lewis did not get into near as much trouble, perhaps, because he expressed his thoughts in the form of a fictional story.

Bell offers a scriptural Jesus, the Son of God in skin, who happened to also live the perfect human life. And if, you choose to love Jesus now, you'll enjoy the abundant life of knowing Him now. God’s reign, “heaven”, is expanded a little more on earth.

Beware. If they do, they are going to have to disfellowship half of Christendom. The dirty little secret is a lot of people in the pews believe the same thing as Rob Bell—God is going to save most, if not all, people.

I suggest they not worry so much about Rob Bell. He has a high view of Jesus and of sharing good news about Jesus. He affirms the saving work of the cross and the glory of the resurrection. A lot of people in our pews don’t believe, on an emotional level, even that. Perhaps, that is what we first address.

Obviously, I don’t have all of the answers on hell. I gave it my best shot for my church yesterday morning in a sermon I called—not jokes please—“Why Hell?” (I just finished an overview of the book of Revelation; I thought I could relax by taking on a popular subject.J) All modesty aside, I am grateful that the sermon was well received, and you are welcome to listen to it by clicking on this link: http://srmp3.kentdavis.com/04-03-11am.mp3 Meanwhile, I’ll keep attempting to grow.

Five Things I Think I Think (with a nod to Peter King for this idea)

1. Two good games in the men’s Final Four on Saturday. I’m sticking with my prediction of Connecticut to win the National Championship tonight.

2. Two fantastic girls’ games last night. Way to go A & M! I’m picking the Aggies on Tuesday night.

3. Way to go Texas Rangers—way to sweep the Red Sox!

4. I think GLEE is channeling humanity’s deep, instinctive desire for community, love, and acceptance. It offers a watered down imitation of the experience church should offer.

5. I’m finishing up the book MOON SHOT by former Mercury Astronauts Alan Shepherd and Deke Slayton. A great read about the NASA space program—through Apollo. I saw the documentary years ago in Argentina; it was good too.